Welcome to The Roundup, a weekly series in which Hassaan, Slope's Creative Manager, and myself, CEO & Co-Founder, discuss news from across the marketing and creative industry. This week we are talking about podcast advertising and the unique access it offers brands.

You can watch the full video below, and read through this blog post for quick links to the topics we discuss.

DIY: Branded & in-house podcasts

Transcript

Brian:Welcome back to the round up with Hassaan and Brian. That's our official name right? The full thing?

Hassaan:Yeah, the full name is with Hassaan and Brian.

Brian:Cause there are other Roundups but there are no other Roundups with Hassaan and Brian.

Hassaan:With Hassaan and Brian. Or Brian and Hassaan.

Brian:Alphabetically, height wise ...

Hassaan:Alphabetically.

Brian:We can organize it a lot of ways.

Hassaan:Either way. This is episode six it's on podcast advertising on podcast.

Brian:Yep, probably my number one favorite topic.

Hassaan:How many ...

Brian:At nauseum. I mean we're wearing the Blog Boys shirts shout out to the ringer.

Hassaan:We're wearing the Blog Boys shirts which ...

Brian:The Ringer podcast network.

Hassaan:It's for podcast, not blogs.

Brian:It's my favorite podcast network and then I bought the shirt for a song, so that's where we are today.

Hassaan:Ringer we're definitely ...

Brian:Thank you, Hassaan.

Hassaan:We're definitely sending this to you so you better buy it.

Brian:You better watch it.

Hassaan:You better watch ...

Brian:You can buy if it's a good fit.

Hassaan:If it's a good fit.

Brian:I don't want to press it.

Hassaan:That's a good point. He loves you guys.

Brian:It's a subtle branding.

Hassaan:That's real care.

Brian:Yeah, that's what podcast are good at is subtle ... but we'll get into all that later.

Hassaan:What are we talking about today?

Brian:Well this week we're talking about how podcasts have grown in our culture.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:So podcasts have grown rapidly since serial took off in 2014.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:So podcasts now are listened to by a huge percentage of Americans there's tons of views and there's a lot more advertising dollars and marketing dollars going towards podcasts. Today we're gonna talk a bit about how companies advertise on ... are you booking marking it for me?

Hassaan:Yeah.

Brian:How companies advertise on podcasts.

Hassaan:One.

Brian:Number two, is how companies are doing their own branding podcasts or their own companies podcasts.

Hassaan:Sweet.

Brian:All right, let's do this.

Hassaan:All right. It's like you said, people are advertising on podcasts a lot more, and there's talk of it actually being this Holy Grail.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:You know what I'm saying? Why is it just now the Holy Grail? How come, what's the deal?

Brian:Well, we didn't have a lot of good analytics or metrics around podcast viewership or if there listening to ads. It's was just kind of a black hole.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:And, Apple recently launched a more robust suite of analytics tools, reporting tools for their podcasts. And it came out that they actually are really effective. Most listeners listen 90% of a podcast.

Hassaan:That's crazy.

Brian:Their hyper engaged, they actually get really good ROI on the ads.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative). Podcasts experienced a growth curve similar to what Google and Facebook experienced.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:What 10 years ago?

Brian:Well they compared a lot to online advertising.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:How people before were kind of hesitant to get into advertising on the web.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:And now we're at a similar moment with podcast and audio in general.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Which is pretty exciting and a lot of this same things that prevented people from advertising on the web, are what is preventing them from advertising on podcasts. What to listen? How do we measure impressions? These are all things that are kind of up in the air with podcast stuff.

Hassaan:You know we've been hearing all this shit about video.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:And you know visual has taken over which to an extent is true, but it's crazy that podcasts are flourishing in that type of environment.

Hassaan:There's this oxymoron even though ... you would assume just based off the length there's gonna be a more clumsier piece of content to consume.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:But they are so flexible.

Brian:We've talked about how podcasts are highly engaging people are listening all the way through, we're starting to get more analytics in reporting ...

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Around the ads that go into podcasts. But really how does an advertiser, how does a marketer actually place an ad into a podcast? And it's a little more complicated than just promoting a post on Facebook.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:And so what have cropped up are these ad networks like Midroll, which is a popular one.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Where you can really have ... They connect to you and they figure out the target audiences of the different podcasts in their network to figure out the best solutions for whatever you're trying to advertise.

Hassaan:The technology has just came up where you can ... we can dynamically place ads in the podcast.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:It doesn't have to be recorded into one big audio file.

Brian:Yep.

Hassaan:But, the other option which is having the host read or talk about a product during that actually episode is actually more lucrative; because that's the biggest payoff you can get from this audience loyalty.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:Is that not only will the audience listen to whatever it is the host has to say, they trust their opinion.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:And there gonna take them up on the recommendations, and so that's why you are seeing that these ads on podcasts are getting ... are converting like crazy.

Brian:I think it's the niche podcasts too. Because if you're ... because it's so hyper targeted.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:For all of these podcasts.

Hassaan:Right, right.

Brian:It's much more relevant to you then it would be for like TV commercial.

Hassaan:These ads have shifted from being kind of a [inaudible 00:04:36] funnel brand ...

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:Awareness thing, now there the lower funnel stages.

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:It's just like, yo! Actually go buy this shit. You know the different types of ads that you can have, you can have a prerecorded segment.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:That's just ...

Brian:Not from the host.

Hassaan:Not from the host right, that the brand sends over. You can have an approved recording segment from the host.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:Stuff You Should Know does this. You can have endorsements from the host.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:Which is Blue Apron, and Square Space their huge at this.

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:Where you have the host talk about their actually experience ...

Brian:Yep.

Hassaan:Using this product. Then you can go so deep as to have like custom segments.

Brian:Yep.

Hassaan:So you know, Recode which is I think is a VOX property?

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:They had my guy from Silicon Valley show up in character to talk about ...

Brian:Do an actual segment for them?

Hassaan:Do an actual segment in character. There aren't really any boundaries like, just like people can now ... just like the people who are making the podcast can now ... they have the flexibility or the freedom to experiment.

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:Cause they know that the view ... the listeners are so loyal, so do these advertisers ...

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:Have the opportunity to experiment with this format, you know.

Brian:And I think we talked about it a little bit on the last episode with branding content in general.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:There's so much room to be creative in podcast advertising.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Cause you know the audience knows these hosts so well.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:And if you're an advertiser that listens to them you pick up on all the inside jokes, the community jokes, and if you really tie into them it can be pretty hilarious and really land with them in a way that any templated type of ad really couldn't.

Hassaan:It gives these advertisers an opportunity to filter their message through the brand that is just already identifying so well with the listeners.

Brian:Yeah.

Kyle:Sorry, my phone went off.

Brian:Are you kidding me Kyle? We were ... that was like our best segment! You know there's still like this nice gray area where I don't really feel like it's an ad their almost contributing to the show.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:And I'm sure that will get more commercialized and won't feel like that, but it's a nice ...

Hassaan:Well ...

Brian:Opportunity right now.

Hassaan:Speaking of these gray areas the last way that an advertiser can ... or that a marketer can advertise on a podcast is to just make their own podcast.

Brian:Yes.

Hassaan:Which is our next segment.

Brian:Branded podcasts. With Hassaan and Brian, you can cut. Now we're talking about branded podcasts.

Hassaan:Yeah. How do you ... how does one go about making ... first of all why do I want a branded podcast?

Brian:Well first of all, what is a branded podcast?

Hassaan:That's a good question.

Brian:So you can either find a host to do a show.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:And do a podcast, presented by ZipRecruiter is a popular one ...

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Or Blue Apron's a popular one that does this. Or you can start a company podcast with employees that run the podcast and guests maybe from outside the organization. I think it's really effective the barrier is its pretty expensive.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Cause you have to produce an entire podcast.

Hassaan:Right, right, right.

Brian:So the budget behind it is similar to any national spot that you do.

Hassaan:Okay.

Brian:If you do take that on as a strategy that's great, most companies can't afford that so they'll just produce a podcast in house.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Like the Drift podcast, you know there's a lot of reports of ... once we started videoing our podcast even if it's just like this.

Hassaan:Right.

Brian:Not actually interviewing or videoing them in the setting.

Hassaan:I feel like ....

Brian:It really spikes readership and communities.

Hassaan:I feel like Drift does that with one of their podcasts.

Brian:Yeah.

Hassaan:They'll record it and shoot it like this ...

Brian:Yep.

Hassaan:And then they'll release the videos as like small bite segments online.

Brian:And that's been really effective for a lot of these branded podcasts and branded pieces of content, is they can actually go in and use their traditional channels for marketing them. What I've also seen is New York Times creates Facebook groups for them.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:So you have a community of like New York Times podcast listeners so you can post to ...

Hassaan:Kind of like book group.

Brian:Yeah, so kind of like, yeah, that's exactly what it is.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Especially which mirrors the more in depth content that you're listening to.

Hassaan:Right, right, right. And what's great about any type of fledgling medium which I mean, podcasts have been around for a while, but there just now starting to get their legs. It has the committed listenership, I keep wanting to say viewership.

Brian:Listenership?

Hassaan:Audience.

Brian:Is that the right word?

Hassaan:It makes sense.

Brian:Let's coin it, listenership.

Hassaan:It has the committed listenership that allows for this type of risk taking on behalf of the content makers.

Brian:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Hassaan:And so like we actually have the room and the freedom to experiment and see what's gonna stick.

Brian:Yeah, yeah. Whenever you have the support of your audience ...

Hassaan:Yeah.

Brian:You can try new things. We might be advertising on some podcasts, more to come from that.

Hassaan:Check it out.

Brian:But other than that, that's all we got.

Hassaan:Hey, subscribe to us.

Brian:Subscribe to ...

Hassaan:Just subscribe to this.

Brian:Just subscribe.

Hassaan:Click that button. We're not even gonna ask you to hit the alerts, you don't need notifications from us, although you could give us notification access, but just subscribe.

Brian:Yeah, just subscribe and if this is natively posted on Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.

Hassaan:Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian:Then just like, there's not subscribe button.

Hassaan:You could share it.

Brian:But, you could share it.

Hassaan:You could definitely share it, you could share it and subscribe it.

Brian:Okay, this is what I want you to do, if you're watching this on Linkedin right now, which I know you are.